Nikhat Zareen loses in trials, to miss Commonwealth Games and Asian Games

“She has to prove she is better than the other girls. In the last assessment, she did slightly better than her competitors. This time, she lost in a close bout. So, she needs to remain focused and make some adjustments. Keeping in mind the first Olympic Qualifier is in April 2027, which is the World Championships in Kazakhstan, she would have plenty of time to make a comeback,” Nieva told The Indian Express.

The coach added that Sakshi was ‘very sharp’ and that there were many potential medalists in the 51-kg category.
“It was a good bout. Sakshi played very well. In that weight category, we have many potential medalists. So yeah, it was a good bout. But Sakshi was very sharp today and managed to win,” Nieva said.

With Sakshi, a 2025 World Cup medalist and world championships quarter-finalist in the 54 kg category last year, making a switch to 51kg for the trials, along with last year’s 48kg World Champion Minakshi Hooda and 2022 CWG champion Nitu Ghanghas, Nikhat was part of a strong field. Nitu was defeated by Minakshi on Wednesday. Nikhat will now have to go back to the drawing board.

Nieva, who was the high-performance director earlier, shared how the two-time world champion needs to adopt a more offensive approach when in the ring and needs to make small adjustments. “I would say when she is boxing from outside, she does very well. But there is always a scope for improvement. And her offensive game has improved a lot. But today she would have needed a little more consistency in her offensive game. She needs to keep working on those things, and sometimes small adjustments and improvements can make the difference,” Nieva said.

Nikhat had topped BFI’s assessment process — a system based on sparring bouts and other parameters — for this year’s Asian Championships in Mongolia. At Mongolia, Nikhat had lost in the semifinals and missed out to an assured spot in the Indian team for the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games.

In the men’s 55kg category, Jadumani Singh scored a 3-2 win over Pawan Bartwal to enter the final, while Sumit Kundu scored a win over Hitesh Gulia in the 70kg semifinals. Former world youth champion Jyoti Gulia, who had lost in the assessment for the Asian Championships in the 51kg, too, was competing in the trials and went down to Minakshi in the quarters.

Nitin Sharma is an Assistant Editor with the sports team of The Indian Express. Based out of Chandigarh, Nitin works with the print sports desk while also breaking news stories for the online sports team. A Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award recipient for the year 2017 for his story ‘Harmans of Moga’, Nitin has also been a three-time recipient of the UNFPA-supported Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity for the years 2022, 2023 and 2024 respectively. His latest Laadli Award, in November 2025, came for an article on Deepthi Jeevanji, who won India’s first gold medal at the World Athletics Para Championship and was taunted for her unusual features as a child. Nitin mainly covers Olympics sports disciplines with his main interests in shooting, boxing, wrestling, athletics and much more. The last 17 years with The Indian Express has seen him unearthing stories across India from as far as Andaman and Nicobar to the North East. Nitin also covers cricket apart from women’s cricket with a keen interest. Nitin has covered events like the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2011 ODI World Cup, 2016 T20 World Cup and the 2017 AIBA World Youth Boxing Championships. An alumnus of School of Communication Studies, Panjab University, from where he completed his Masters in Mass Communications degree, Nitin has been an avid quizzer too. A Guru Nanak Dev University Colour holder, Nitin’s interest in quizzing began in the town of Talwara Township, a small town near the Punjab-Himachal Pradesh border. When not reporting, Nitin's interests lie in discovering new treks in the mountains or spending time near the river Beas at his hometown. ... Read More

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